'Oxford Companion to Beer' is a massive reference for serious beer lovers

The Oxford Companion to Beer provides a wealth of knowledge for the serious beer enthusiast. (Mike Kittrell/Press-Register)

The first thing I noticed when the "Oxford Companion to Beer" arrived on my desk last week was that it’s huge. Sure, I’d read the stats: 920 pages filled with more than 1,100 A-Z entries written by 166 of the world’s most prominent beer experts, all for a full retail price of $65 (though it’s available at a substantial discount). I knew it was going to be big, but it wasn’t until I held it and flipped through it the first time that the sheer magnitude of this book came into scope.

Edited by Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery and one of the pre-eminent experts in the beer world, the "Oxford Companion" is essentially the first edition of the most comprehensive compendium of beer ever compiled. While it’s not for everyone — casual beer drinkers may find that the encyclopedic nature of the book makes reading it feel somewhat like researching a term paper — beer writers, bartenders, brewers and those with a burning desire to learn more about one of the world’s great beverages will find the "Oxford Companion" to be a valuable resource.

The volume eschews the generalities found in so many other beer books, instead fleshing out minute details in stories that are often painted with broad strokes. The tale of India Pale Ale’s origins, which is often condensed to a paragraph about one brewer’s decision to use more hops in his ale so that it wouldn’t spoil en route to the colonies in India, is just one example. Oliver devotes nearly four full pages to the style and its history, one which is more interesting — and quite a bit more complicated — than that which is commonly retold.

It’s not just history, though.

Want to know the effect CaraPils malt has on a finished beer? It’s in there (better head retention, in case you were wondering).

What flavors are imparted by using Cascade hops? The answer’s on page 226. In fact, there are 71 different hop varieties listed in detail throughout the "Oxford Companion." But it doesn’t stop there. Other entries focus on dry-hopping and wet-hopping, late-hopping and first wort hopping, hop oils, hop extracts, hop utilization and more. It’s just another example of how deep this book gets.

The "Oxford Companion" sets the record straight on some common beer myths, as well. An entry on Benjamin Franklin addresses the famous quote — "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" — which is routinely attributed to the founding father on bumper stickers and T-shirts. According to the "Oxford Companion," however, "it’s unlikely that he ever said it. In a 1779 letter to his friend, French economist Andre Morellet, Franklin wrote, ‘behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.’"

In addition to the A-Z entries, the "Oxford Companion" features listings of beer organizations, festivals, websites, magazines and newspapers — all of which are as accurate and as up-to-date as they’ll ever be in the first edition, which was released just last week.

We live in an amazing time for beer lovers. With more than 1,700 American breweries and counting, Oliver’s massive reference book is a timely masterpiece that will make the perfect companion for craft beer’s meteoric rise.